Europe’s competition regulator is preparing to move against Google Inc. in the next few weeks, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday, setting the stage for charges against the U.S. Internet-search giant in a five-year-old investigation that has stalled three times and sparked a political firestorm.

The European Union is set to open a sweeping investigation into whether Internet commerce firms like Amazon.com Inc. are violating the bloc’s antitrust laws by restricting cross-border trade.
The inquiry, announced Thursday by the EU’s antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, follows pressure from France and Germany to use EU competition rules and other regulations to better target the business practices of large technology firms.
It is part of a broader EU strategy to knit together the bloc’s fragmented online ecosystems into a digital single market. Policy makers hope that will help European Internet firms to build their clout to better compete with U.S. Web giants like Google Inc. and Facebook Inc.

Introduction of a bill intended to establish a new level of federal involvement in the protection of K-12 students' privacy has been delayed following criticism that lawmakers fell well short of creating the strong national law for which advocates hoped.
On Monday, U.S. Reps. Jared Polis, D-Colo., and Luke Messer, R-Ind., were poised to introduce the "Student Digital Privacy and Parental Rights Act," developed in close consultation with the White House.
But after critical press reports and concern from privacy advocates about the scope and rigor of a near-final draft of the bill, the lawmakers decided to hold off. A revised version of the proposed legislation is now expected to be made public later this week.

A survey of parents with school-age children in Boston shows parents see many benefits from in-school internet access, with more than 80 percent stating that in-school internet access helps students develop the necessary skills to gain employment and participate in the global economy. However, a majority of parents are unaware that technology companies may be tracking their children’s internet use at school. This demonstrates the importance of and need for stronger protections to prevent student data mining and online tracking in Boston schools.
The findings are based on a survey conducted for SafeGov.org aimed at understanding Boston parents’ views on technology in the classroom and their awareness of student data mining.

The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to regulate Internet service like a public utility, expanding the U.S. government’s oversight of a once lightly regulated business at the center of the country’s commercial and social activity. The 3-2 vote, along party lines, starts the clock ticking on an expected legal challenge from the telecom and cable industries.
The move marks a turn in the government’s approach to the Internet—from a hands off policy dating back two decades to encourage the Web’s growth to a more interventionist posture as commercial issues have multiplied.

“The Chamber applauds the re-introduction of this legislation so the nation can have a conversation on the complex issues we have not fully explored such as balancing consumer privacy rights with national security concerns when law enforcement seeks access to emails and other electronic communications stored online or in the cloud by third-party service providers.
“The Chamber looks forward to working with Congress as they address this issue.”

With law enforcement adoption of body worn video accelerating, storing digital evidence has become a major issue as a year's worth of video from each camera can be about a terabyte of data. By developing a secure storage system on the Azure Government Cloud, VIEVU is helping police departments capture and archive video evidence gathered during a police officer's daily routine. This provides a convenient, on-demand solution to view, modify, and share video data.

Senator Mark Leno has joined forces with a diverse coalition of the state’s leading technology companies and organizations, including Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Engine, Mozilla, the American Civil Liberties Union of California, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Center for Democracy and Technology to announce new legislation that modernizes California’s privacy laws to keep up with emerging technologies. Senate Bill 178 protects Californians against warrantless government access to electronic information stored on mobile devices or online services, sensitive emails, text messages, personal photos, contact lists, and location information.

VMware’s cloud service has been granted approval to operate across the US public sector by the government’s Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP).
The service, provided by government IT specialist provider Carpathia, has been given authority to operate (ATO) by FedRAMP, which is mandatory for any cloud service provider serving the Federal government.